Father guilty in baby killing

By Bryan Fitzgerald

Updated 9:38 pm, Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Queensbury

Gary Waite was found guilty of murder Wednesday for killing his 15-month-old son in February 2012, a crime Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan described as a "very brutal and agonizing way for" a child to die.

Waite, 30, of Glens Falls was convicted of second-degree murder around 2:15 p.m., about an hour after the jury began deliberating for a second day in Warren County Court. Hogan said the jury deliberated for about three hours over the course of two days.

Waite told police the child's injuries occurred after falls in his apartment, including one suffered after Waite tossed the boy on to a couch and the baby bounced onto the floor. Medical experts who testified at the trial the child's head injuries were too severe to be caused that way, Hogan said.

Jesse's death was the third killing of a young child Hogan's office has prosecuted in the last year and a half.

"When we approach cases, we want to be professional and analytical, but you can't help but wonder how anyone can brutally treat a child," Hogan said. "It makes you grapple with what's wrong with humanity."

Hogan prosecuted the case before Judge John Hall Jr. and Waite was represented by Marc Zuckerman of Bolton Landing.